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Barnabas Collins (2012)
Barnabas Collins was once the respected heir of the Collins fishery empire, but has been cursed to be a vampire by Angelique Bouchard, a young woman -and witch- whom he had spurned. As a child, he is portrayed by Justin Tracy and by [[Johnny Depp|'Johnny Depp']] as an adult. 18th Century Barnabas was born in 1747 to Joshua and Naomi Collins. As a child, Barnabas moved with his family from Liverpool, England to the east coast of North America where they established the fishing village of Collinsport and enlisted the finest available artisans to build their enormous mansion, Collinwood, on their new estate on a hillside overlooking the town. As a young man, Barnabas entered a relationship with a servant named Angelique but at some point realized that he did not return her affections. He rejected her and instead fell in love with a woman closer to his own social standing named Josette DuPres. Unfortunately for him, Angelique refused to let him go. Skilled in the arts of witchcraft, Angelique used her dark abilities to kill everyone Barnabas loved: first his mother and father, and then Josette. Consumed with jealous rage, Angelique put Josette under a trance and compelled her to jump off of Widows' Hill to her death. Josette manages to resist just long enough to plead with Barnabas to help her before she's forced to step off the precipice and slam onto the wave-beaten rocks below. Overwhelmed with grief, Barnabas threw himself after her in the hopes of joining his beloved in death, but survived the fall. Under Angelique's gloating gaze, Barnabas transformed into a monstrous vampire, to his anguish. Cursed to exist only in darkness and live only by taking life from others, Barnabas struggled to keep the family business afloat. Ultimately he was unable to protect himself from Angelique, who in her quest for revenge effortlessly turned the town against him, even leading an angry mob to bury Barnabas alive inside a chained coffin, where he would helplessly languish and thirst for the next 196 years. 20th Century Nearly two centuries later, in (probably October) 1972, Barnabas is accidentally freed by construction workers building a McDonald's restaurant off Highway 9 near Collinsport. The crew uncovers the coffin with an earthmover and, curious what might be inside and not suspecting the cost of that curiosity, they eagerly use bolt cutters to unfasten the coffin's chains. Still vampirically "alive" and youthful due to Angelique's curse, but thirsting beyond his control, Barnabas attacks and rapidly drains the terrified workers of their blood, killing them all. Unfamiliar with scientific and technical developments since his imprisonment in 1776, Barnabas believes at first that he has been released into hell to be punished for his vampiric crimes and dabbling in black magic. He later recounts to the modern Collins family that his escape was due to an enormous "yellow dragon," the equipment that had unearthed him at the construction site; and he confuses the illuminated giant M forming McDonald's "golden arches" with a symbol of Mephistopheles. Barnabas also mistakes the headlights of an oncoming car for the eyes of the devil. C overed in blood from his fatal attacks on the construction crew, Barnabas follows the roadway ("curious terrain," he says as he hesitantly steps upon asphalt for the first time) and wanders through the night-illuminated town, mystified by the modern world of 1972, with its pizza parlors, record shops, liberated young women, and phone booths. Eventually making his way to the Collinwood estate, Barnabas is stunned and disappointed to find the once glorious property, built by the finest craftsmen of his parents' era, now in a state of decrepitude that is obvious even in the darkness of night. In a pumpkin patch on the estate, Barnabas encounters and hypnotically induces cooperation from the inebriated caretaker, Willie Loomis, from whom he learns that descendants of his family are alive in the present day, which the startled vampire is told is 1972. Barnabas has Willie help him cleanse himself so that he can make himself more presentable to the others at Collinwood. Barnabas first introduces himself to the young people of Collinwood, David Collins and 15-year-old Carolyn Stoddard, and is then confronted by the understandably very suspicious Elizabeth Collins Stoddard. After revealing his vampiric nature to Elizabeth, but assuring her that he plans only to rejoin the Collins family and restore its long-diminished fortunes, Barnabas demonstrates his secret knowledge that long-concealed passages beneath Collinwood are a treasure trove of riches. After extracting a promise from Barnabas that his revelations will remain their secret, Elizabeth then declares, "Welcome home, Barnabas Collins." Barnabas is introduced the following morning to the other inhabitants of Collinwood, Elizabeth's brother Roger Collins, and the live-in family psychiatrist Dr. Julia Hoffman. More importantly to Barnabas, he meets the recently arrived governess, Victoria Winters, who reminds him of his long-lost love Josette and who, over time, reveals that she has been led to Collinwood by Josette's ghost and that she is also attracted to Barnabas. Barnabas soon learns that Angelique Bouchard is also still alive and youthful looking (and now blonde), 196 years after she cursed him with vampirism. He realizes that she has used witchcraft to establish herself as a pillar of the community, being the owner of the highly successful Angel Bay Seafood company, which is the chief competitor to the languishing Collins Canning Company, and thus is responsible for the supernaturally engineered decline of the Collins family. As he sets about using the hidden fortune from the secret rooms beneath the mansion to renovate Collinwood and restore the family business and reputation, Barnabas also continues learning about the modern world. His antiquated mannerisms and curious appearance arouse the curiosity of Dr. Hoffman, who uses hypnosis to learn that he is a vampire. She agrees to begin using laboratory treatments to help Barnabas, but when he learns that she is instead secretly trying to use his blood to help her achieve eternal youthfulness for herself, Barnabas views her as a traitor, drains her of blood, and drops her seemingly dead body into the Atlantic waters off the coast of Collinsport. After she learns of his successful efforts to revive the Collins family business and community standing, Angelique is infuriated and offers Barnabas both "business propositions" and romantic overtures to try to threaten and seduce him into joining together with her. Her seduction succeeds in arousing him into a frenetic, supernaturally destructive bout of lovemaking on one occasion, but afterward he is regretful and again spurns the witch. The disappointed and angry Angelique has Barnabas confined again to a coffin, but he is released this time in a matter of hours due to supernatural intervention from another party: The young David Collins frees Barnabas and says he was told where to come and help Barnabas by the ghost of Laura Collins, David's mother - whom Angelique later acknowledges she had killed in a boating "accident" caused by witchcraft. Barnabas and the Collins family soon have a final confrontation with Angelique when she leads the townspeople once again to Collinwood to demand Barnabas' arrest for the killings he has committed under Angelique's vampire curse. Barnabas acknowledges his responsibility, but also reveals to the shocked citizens of Collinsport that their leading businesswoman is a witch and is ultimately the one who has caused the deaths resulting from his vampire curse. Angelique makes a final supernatural assault upon the Collinses. The family fights back but is on the verge of losing, when the supernaturally empowered spirit of Laura Collins shows up to defend her young son David from Angelique's wrath. Laura blasts Angelique fatally. Before she dies, the witch digs her crumbling heart out of her chest and offers it one last time to Barnabas as he crouches beside her. Barnabas then rushes to Widows' Hill to try to prevent Victoria from leaping off the cliff under the compulsion of a final spell Angelique had cast before dying. Though Barnabas does reach her in time, Victoria, who has realized Barnabas is a vampire, insists there is only one way they can be together: if she were to become an immortal vampire as well. Wanting to spare her the vampiric suffering he has endured, Barnabas refuses. In despair, she leaps from the cliff, but Barnabas lunges after her and, knowing the alternative is to lose her forever, he plunges his fangs into her throat as they plummet into the Atlantic-beaten crags below. After a moment, Vicky revives, now physically changed into a vampire, and gently corrects Barnabas when he says her name, telling him the name "Josette," presumably suggesting that the spirit of Josette has merged into the body of Vicky in a sort of reincarnation. She and Barnabas embrace amid the crashing waves in the last image of them in the film. Collins, Barnabas Collins, Barnabas Category:Collins Family